A Hundred

Years
CP Scott
May 5 1921

Foreword by Liz Forgan

Chair of the Scott Trust

THE
SCOTT
TRUST
CP Scott
May 5 1921
 CP Scott’s essay first appeared in the
Manchester Guardian on May 5 1921

This booklet was produced for the Scott

Trust and Guardian Media Group by
Guardian Creative
 A Hundred Years

Foreword
Liz Forgan

In times of great change, it is especially important that some things

stay the same.

In May 1921, the great Manchester Guardian editor CP Scott wrote a

leading article to mark the centenary of the paper. CP’s much quoted
essay has, in the words of one commentator, “endured as the ultimate
statement of values for a free press”. The article, published under the
headline “A Hundred Years”, is still recognised around the world as
the blueprint for independent journalism.

CP used the centenary leader to set out the values he thought should
inform journalism and the running of a newspaper business. Though
we have to reinterpret them for the modern age, these values remain
unchanged and undiluted as the guiding principles of our journalism
and our company.

The article is filled with now-famous assertions: that “comment is

free, but facts are sacred”; that newspapers have “a moral as well as a
material existence”; that “the voice of opponents no less than that of
friends has a right to be heard”. CP talks about the need for “honesty,
cleanness [now interpreted as integrity], courage, fairness, a sense of
duty to the reader and the community”. These words, written nearly
a century ago, still resonate with meaning. They articulate standards
that everyone working for the company — not just journalists — is still
expected to meet today.

The Scott family put its fortune into trust to preserve the Guardian,
its independence and its editorial values “faithful to its liberal
tradition”. That fortune was the basis of what is now Guardian Media
Group, of which the Scott Trust is the sole shareholder. Profits from
the commercial group guarantee the future of the Guardian and the
independence of its editors who, on appointment, are instructed by
the Trust simply to carry on the paper “as heretofore”.


 A Hundred Years

But what do these injunctions really mean? There is no universally

agreed definition of liberalism, for example. On the face of it, “as
heretofore” is similarly ambiguous. Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-
chief of Guardian News & Media, gives this answer: “It’s not about
preserving the Guardian in aspic. It’s about honouring the paper’s
journalistic, ethical and progressive values while reinterpreting them
for the present day.”

CP himself celebrated the constantly changing nature of the

newspaper business, and saw “developments”, “growth” and “fresh
accomplishment” as essential for “a paper that is really alive”.

He believed the most fertile conditions for such growth were created
through a close and collaborative relationship between the business
and editorial sides of the newspaper operation.

CP embodied this principle; he was a journalist, but as the Guardian’s

owner as well as editor he was also a Manchester businessman. He
believed, of course, that a newspaper should fulfil “a higher function”
than merely making a profit, that it should educate, influence and
inform, but he also believed in sound financial management. To
CP, a newspaper was “much more than a business”, but a business
nonetheless. “[A newspaper] is a business, like any other,” he wrote,
“and has to pay in the material sense in order to live.” CP knew that
idealism must be accompanied by commercial effectiveness; that
editorial freedom comes at a price.

This philosophy is reflected in the contemporary statement of the

Scott Trust’s core purpose: “To secure the financial and editorial
independence of the Guardian in perpetuity: as a quality national
newspaper without party affiliation; remaining faithful to its liberal
tradition; as a profit-seeking enterprise managed in an efficient and
cost-effective manner.”

In other words, the twin protectors of our heritage and values are a
fierce commitment to editorial independence and rigorous business
management. The second part is uncomfortable for some people, but
equally important for the Guardian’s long-term security. Just as the
Scott Trust is dedicated to maintaining and promoting the Guardian
as an independent voice, so it will always require it to be run as a
profit-seeking, efficient and cost-effective business.


 A Hundred Years

All serious newspaper companies now recognise that they cannot

survive as print-only publishers. If we are to be successful multimedia
publishers and serve our growing international audience, we have to
move away from the familiar routines of the past. The move from
Farringdon Road to Kings Place is a wonderful opportunity to do just
that, but there are, of course, dissenting voices (this is the Guardian,
after all) who argue that such change is contrary to “the Scott
tradition”. So it’s worth remembering this: the Scott Trust exists to
sustain the Guardian’s journalism, not to preserve the status quo.

A commitment to liberal journalism means creating the conditions

for brave, compassionate, often radical and always independent
reporting that traces its origins back to John Edward Taylor, who
founded the Guardian in 1821 to “zealously enforce the principles
of civil and religious Liberty” and “warmly advocate the cause
of Reform.”

In the digital age, with its profound changes to the meaning and
nature of journalism, the way we interpret and apply the values we
are so determined to protect will be one of our greatest tests. What do
our traditions mean in today’s world? In response to a request from
the Scott Trust, Alan Rusbridger drew up the following statement
of purpose:

“The Scott Trust exists to preserve the Guardian and its journalistic
traditions in perpetuity. It also has a declared purpose to promote
freedom of the press and liberal journalism at home and abroad. CP
Scott wanted the Guardian to be a liberal paper ‘worthy of its power
and duty’. The character of Scott Trust journalism depends on its
independence of ownership, behaviour and belief. Our journalists
should be fierce in their protection of that independence.

“In the absence of a proprietor, our journalists’ main relationships are

with other colleagues and with readers, viewers or listeners. There
should be a high premium on transparency, collaboration and open
discussion.

“Scott Trust journalists need not share a narrow set of political beliefs
but should be conscious of and share the Trust’s general purpose
and inheritance. At the same time, we should allow plurality of
opinion, believing that diversity is good for the deliberative process


 A Hundred Years

of democracy. The papers should promote minority views as well as

mainstream argument and should encourage dissent.

“All our journalists should operate to high ethical standards in

searching for the ‘unclouded face of truth’, including the prompt
admission of error. Editors should strive to differentiate factual
reporting from commentary. Our journalists should argue the causes
of free speech and freedom of information — at home and abroad. We
should behave fairly and allow our opponents, as well as our friends,
a voice.”

Ultimately, though, such definitions can only ever be partial. What we

stand for is more felt than written or spoken. As CP said, “character is
a subtle affair … it is the slow deposit of past actions and ideals.”

CP Scott would barely recognise the form and dimensions of today’s

Guardian, nor could he have imagined that through its website it
would one day reach millions of people across the globe. He would,
however, immediately recognise the spirit that inhabits both the
Guardian and the Observer — Britain’s oldest Sunday paper with its
own strong traditions and distinctive voice, and which joined the
Group in 1993. And at the heart of Guardian Unlimited he would find
his very words at the head of its global blog, Comment is Free.

In all of them he would see, reinterpreted for a new century, the love
of open debate, the sense of responsibility to the community, the
striving to distinguish between fact and opinion, and, above all, the
passion for independent, truthful journalism which also shines from
every line of his celebrated essay and is the special heritage of the
Scott Trust.

Liz Forgan DBE

Chair of the Scott Trust


 A Hundred Years

A Hundred Years
CP Scott, May 5 1921

A hundred years is a long time; it is a long time even in the life of

a newspaper, and to look back on it is to take in not only a vast
development in the thing itself, but a great slice in the life of the
nation, in the progress and adjustment of the world. In the general
development the newspaper, as an institution, has played its part,
and no small part, and the particular newspaper with which I
personally am concerned has also played its part, it is to be hoped,
not without some usefulness. I have had my share in it for a little
more than fifty years; I have been its responsible editor for only a few
months short of its last half-century; I remember vividly its fiftieth
birthday; I now have the happiness to share in the celebration of
its hundredth. I can therefore speak of it with a certain intimacy of
acquaintance. I have myself been part of it and entered into its inner
courts. That is perhaps a reason why, on this occasion, I should write
in my own name, as in some sort a spectator, rather than in the name
of the paper as a member of its working staff.

In all living things there must be a certain unity, a principle of vitality

and growth. It is so with a newspaper, and the more complete and
clear this unity the more vigorous and fruitful the growth. I ask
myself what the paper stood for when first I knew it, what it has
stood for since and stands for now. A newspaper has two sides to it.
It is a business, like any other, and has to pay in the material sense in
order to live. But it is much more than a business; it is an institution;
it reflects and it influences the life of a whole community; it may
affect even wider destinies. It is, in its way, an instrument of
government. It plays on the minds and consciences of men. It
may educate, stimulate, assist, or it may do the opposite. It has,
therefore, a moral as well as a material existence, and its character
and influence are in the main determined by the balance of these
two forces. It may make profit or power its first object, or it may
conceive itself as fulfilling a higher and more exacting function.


 A Hundred Years

I think I may honestly say that, from the day of its foundation,
there has not been much doubt as to which way the balance tipped
so far as regards the conduct of the paper whose fine tradition I
inherited and which I have had the honour to serve through all my
working life. Had it not been so, personally I could not have served
it. Character is a subtle affair, and has many shades and sides to
it. It is not a thing to be much talked about, but rather to be felt.
It is the slow deposit of past actions and ideals. It is for each man
his most precious possession, and so it is for that latest growth of
time the newspaper. Fundamentally it implies honesty, cleanness,
courage, fairness, a sense of duty to the reader and the community.
A newspaper is of necessity something of a monopoly, and its first
duty is to shun the temptations of monopoly. Its primary office is the
gathering of news. At the peril of its soul it must see that the supply
is not tainted. Neither in what it gives, nor in what it does not give,
nor in the mode of presentation must the unclouded face of truth
suffer wrong. Comment is free, but facts are sacred. “Propaganda”,
so called, by this means is hateful. The voice of opponents no less
than that of friends has a right to be heard. Comment also is justly
subject to a self-imposed restraint. It is well to be frank; it is even
better to be fair. This is an ideal. Achievement in such matters
is hardly given to man. Perhaps none of us can attain to it in the
desirable measure. We can but try, ask pardon for shortcomings, and
there leave the matter.

But, granted a sufficiency of grace, to what further conquests may

we look, what purpose serve, what tasks envisage? It is a large
question, and cannot be fully answered. We are faced with a new
and enormous power and a growing one. Whither is the young
giant tending? What gifts does he bring? How will he exercise
his privilege and powers? What influence will he exercise on
the minds of men and on our public life? It cannot be pretended
that an assured and entirely satisfactory answer can be given to
such questions. Experience is in some respects disquieting. The
development has not been all in the direction which we should
most desire.

One of the virtues, perhaps almost the chief virtue, of a newspaper

is its independence. Whatever its position or character, at least it
should have a soul of its own. But the tendency of newspapers,
as of other businesses, in these days is towards amalgamation.

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 A Hundred Years

In proportion as the function of a newspaper has developed

and its organisation expanded, so have its costs increased. The
smaller newspapers have had a hard struggle; many of them have
disappeared. In their place we have great organisations controlling
a whole series of publications of various kinds and even of differing
or opposing politics. The process may be inevitable, but clearly
there are drawbacks. As organisation grows personality may tend
to disappear. It is much to control one newspaper well; it is perhaps
beyond the reach of any man, or any body of men, to control half a
dozen with equal success. It is possible to exaggerate the danger, for
the public is not undiscerning. It recognises the authentic voices of
conscience and conviction when it finds them, and it has a shrewd
intuition of what to accept and what to discount.

This is a matter which in the end must settle itself, and those who
cherish the older ideal of a newspaper need not be dismayed. They
have only to make their papers good enough in order to win, as
well as to merit, success, and the resources of a newspaper are not
wholly measured in pounds, shillings, and pence. Of course the
thing can only be done by competence all round and by that spirit of
cooperation right through the working staff which only a common
ideal can inspire.

There are people who think you can run a newspaper about as easily
as you can poke a fire, and that knowledge, training, and aptitude
are superfluous endowments. There have even been experiments on
this assumption, and they have not met with success. There must be
competence, to start with, on the business side, just as there must
be in any large undertaking, but it is a mistake to suppose that the
business side of a paper should dominate, as sometimes happens,
not without distressing consequences. A newspaper to be of value
should be a unity, and every part of it should equally understand
and respond to the purposes and ideals which animate it. Between
its two sides there should be a happy marriage, and editor and
business manager should march hand in hand, the first, be it well
understood, just an inch or two in advance. Of the staff much the
same thing may be said. They should be a friendly company. They
need not, of course, agree on every point, but they should share
in the general purpose and inheritance. A paper is built up upon
their common and successive labours, and their work should never
be task work, never merely dictated. They should be like a racing

11
 A Hundred Years

boat’s crew, pulling well together, each man doing his best because
he likes it, and with a common and glorious goal.

That is the path of self-respect and pleasure; it is also the path of

success. And what a work it is! How multiform, how responsive to
every need and every incident of life! What illimitable possibilities
of achievement and of excellence! People talk of “journalese” as
though a journalist were of necessity a pretentious and sloppy writer;
he may be, on the contrary, and very often is, one of the best in the
world. At least he should not be content to be much less. And then
the developments. Every year, almost every day, may see growth
and fresh accomplishment, and with a paper that is really alive, it
not only may, but does. Let anyone take a file of this paper, or for
that matter any one of half a dozen other papers, and compare its
whole make-up and leading features today with what they were five
years ago, ten years ago, twenty years ago, and he will realise how
large has been the growth, how considerable the achievement. And
this is what makes the work of a newspaper worthy and interesting.
It has so many sides, it touches life at so many points, at every one
there is such possibility of improvement and excellence. To the
man, whatever his place on the paper, whether on the editorial,
or business, or even what may be regarded as the mechanical side
— this also vitally important in its place — nothing should satisfy
short of the best, and the best must always seem a little ahead of the
actual. It is here that ability counts and that character counts, and it
is on these that a newspaper, like every great undertaking, if it is to
be worthy of its power and duty, must rely.

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 A Hundred Years

The Scott Trust

A unique form of media ownership

The Scott Trust is the sole owner of Guardian Media Group plc
(GMG), parent organisation of the Guardian.

It was formed in 1936 to safeguard the values and journalistic

freedom of the Guardian — the legacy of its editor of more than 50
years, CP Scott.

The Trust’s core purpose is to secure the financial and editorial

independence of the Guardian in perpetuity, while its subsidiary
aim is to promote liberal journalism and freedom of the press in the
UK and abroad. It requires that the Guardian “remains faithful to its
liberal tradition” and is run “as a profit-seeking enterprise managed
in an efficient and cost-effective manner”.

The Trust takes no financial return on its investment: all of GMG’s

profits are reinvested to support the core purpose. So, unlike other
media companies, GMG does not seek profit for the financial benefit
of a proprietor or shareholders. Instead, it seeks profit to sustain
journalism that is free from commercial or political interference,
and to uphold the values laid down by CP Scott. Part of the
Trust’s present-day role is to ensure that these values are upheld
throughout GMG.

To learn more, visit the Scott Trust section of the GMG website,
where you will find a short film about the Trust and information
about its history, purpose and present-day role.

www.gmgplc.co.uk/ScottTrust

13
CP Scott as the people of Manchester were used to
seeing him: on his bicycle